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Monday, March 12, 2018

DXers Unlimited weekend edition, March 11

Special thanks to Arnie Coro, for sharing his latest program script from March 11, 2018
Radio Havana Cuba
Dxers Unlimited weekend edition
For Sunday March 11 2018
By Arnie Coro
Radio amateur CO2KK
Hi, my friends, mis amigos, mes amis, radio-aficionados from all around the world that are just now listening to this weekend edition of Dxers Unlimited coming to you from sunny La Habana, Cuba, where we continue to enjoy the most gorgeous spring weather that you can imagine... Ideal weather for swimming, sailing and also to go to the beach at night with your inseparable companion, the AM broadcast band receiver and if possible also take to the beach a tuneable loop that can be connected to your radio...

I am Arnie Coro, radio amateur CO2KK your host at this twice weekly radio hobby program and here is our first new item...

Cameroon Dxpedition to begin operations starting March 15
Members of the Italian DXpedition Team (IDT) will be active as TJ3TT from the Republic of Cameroon between March 15-29th. Tango Juliet three tango tango will be the callsign used... Now a list of operators mentioned in the announcement----starting with Mac/JA3USA, Silvano/I2YSB, Vinicio/IK2CIO, Angelo/ IK2CKR, Marcello/IK2DIA and Stefano/IK2HKT. And then Fred, the operator of IK7JWY, will be the HF pilot station. Activity will be on 160-10 meters using CW, SSB and RTTY.

Suggested frequencies are:
CW - 1826, 3530, 7025, 10115, 14030, 18068, 21030, 24890 and 28030 kHz SSB - 3775, 7090, 14260, 18128, 21260, 24950 and 28460 kHz RTTY - 14084 kHz
A very quiet Sunday continues to dominate the Solar Terrestrial relationships... day after day , optical observations show no signs of sunspots... something typical of the tail end of a solar cycle....this period of very solar activity continues to provide very low ionospheric absorption of the lower frequency spectrum producing excellent reception of the the LONG WAVE and the AM medium wave broadcast bands

According to the recently published opinions of several space weather experts, we are now, yes right now, continuing to enjoy one of the best low frequency Dxing seasons since the year 2014..... As expected the month of March will certainly may bring many interesting propagation conditions on the lower frequency bands, thanks to the expected much lower ionospheric absorption on the D layer already explained here at Dxers Unlimited.

Those of you that live in the Northern Hemisphere will be able to enjoy excellent propagation on the 160 , 80 , 60 and 40 meters bands during the time frame between your local sunset and about two hours more after your local sunrise.... and that will provide you with about fourteen hours of interesting propagation conditions . Those of you with capability to receive on the new 630 meters band will like to explore what is happening in that medium wave amateur band, now available to radio amateurs in many countries around the world.

Now here is an invitation. Yes I want to invite you all amigos, so that you can share with other Dxers Unlimited's listeners your latest DX catches... I would be pleased to receive some of your personal first hand experiences that you have had so far during this 2018, especially regarding if you have noticed better propagation conditions on the lower frequencies since the beginning of this year. And then your DX catches will go on the air here to help others enjoy this wonderful hobby....
the one you and I enjoy so much : RADIO

I am your host Arnie Coro in sunny La Habana, Cuba Yes amigos, QSL , QSL on the air and directly to your e mail and postal address too.... Sure, here at our station we are proud to answer each and every signal report, e-mail, letter and comments about our programs received since from the very first day that we went on the air with the predecessor of RHC, the Onda Corta Experimental Cubana. Now our next celebration is coming up... On the first day of May of 1961, we used the name Radio Havana Cuba for the first time.... I still remember how we used a US made VHF studio to transmitter link, around 159 megaHertz to send our audio from Revolution Square, the Plaza de la Revolución, to the downtown studios of Radio Progeso

The great challenge of today's radio amateurs and Dxers is without doubts the ever raising levels of radio frequency noise signals that interfere with reception of signals all over the radio spectrum...
At a recent radio club meeting a conversation came up about how some of us radio amateur operators have such a high noise level, something that make that a great many signals are lost in that noise. Depending on the frequency or band you listen to, some are experiencing 20db above S9 as their noise floor.... Me too... yes ! At CO2KK, my ham radio station, located in a downtown residential neighborhood I have to deal with a S5 to S7 noise floor on 80 metres, and a S3-S5 on the 40 meters band.

RFI is interference caused by YOUR station equipment getting into other devices, from TVs, to electronic organs, to your touch controlled paper shredder or your cellphone . EMI is interference FROM other electronic devices which cause your receiver noise floor to rise. Perhaps this is, not entirely technically correct, but it serves a practical purpose .

As our lives become filled with technology in every possible form, the likelihood of electronic interference increases. Every lamp dimmer, garage-door opener or other new technical “toy” contributes to the electrical noise around us. Many of these devices also “listen” to that growing noise and may react unpredictably to their electronic neighbours. Whether it’s called EMI, RFI or TVI [Television Interference], unwanted interaction between intentional and unintentional receivers and transmitters has stimulated vigorous growth in the field of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC).
Now at the end of the show an update about HF propagation.... what was happening on Saturday 10 March, 2018

Only one day (March 2) showed any sunspot activity over the past reporting week, with a daily sunspot number of 11 so average daily sunspot activity declined from 6 to 1.6. Average daily solar flux went from 68.3 to 67.6.

No sunspots have been seen since March 2.
Geomagnetic indicators were quiet, with average planetary A index dropping from 10.4 to 5.1, and mid-latitude A index from 7.4 to 4.6. Predicted solar flux is 68 on March 11-15, 70 on March 16, 72 onMarch 17-29, 70 on March 30, 68 on March 31 through April 11, 70 on April 12, and 72 on April 13-22.

Send signal reports and comments to inforhc@enet.cu or via Air Mail to Arnie Coro, Radio Havana Cuba, Havana, Cuba